International Social Housing Festival

Clúid was selected by Google after a competitive tender process to lease and manage the 46 rental apartments at Bolands Mills on Barrow Street in Dublin 4. The workshop will focus on utilising social housing expertise and our mission to work with global multinationals on affordable housing solutions for the private market.

The prestige of the scheme and global partner (Google) highlights the growing positive reputation of Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in Ireland. The workshop will explore the engagement with the partner and how we ensured these apartments would be appropriate for the target market of local key workers. The workshop also offers an opportunity to discuss opportunities to engage with companies on their ESG and how social and affordable housing can play a key role in this area.

At Parkside, Clúid delivered 80 Cost Rental and 122 Social homes. We are also due to deliver a further 173 homes in 2025, along with a new 386sq.m community space. Parkside highlights how mixed tenure communities can be effectively delivered.

This session will demonstrate how mixed tenure communities can promote social diversity, bring together people from different economic backgrounds, enhance social cohesion and reduce segregation. This diversity fosters a sense of community and mutual support, as residents share common spaces and amenities.

This session will provide an overview of Clúid’s approach to developing and incorporating a biodiversity plan for a large housing body. You will hear how we identified, actioned, enhanced and protected biodiversity throughout our organisation, to mitigate the impacts of climate change on our organisation’s assets and to align with national and EU environmental and biodiversity objectives.

This session will demonstrate the significant role Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) have to play in meeting national climate goals, from retrofitting, to meeting NZEB building standards, to improving biodiversity and considering how best to integrate climate adaptation measures, e.g., flood protection.

The Housing Alliance engaged Sustainability Works to research and provide recommendations on how to maximise the potential contribution of the Housing Alliance members, and the wider AHB sector, to address climate change challenges.

Working with clay, this participatory workshop will encourage participants to engage creatively with each other on their local community, capturing the unique characteristics, stories, and personal connections they feel within their “square mile.”   By using clay, participants create a collective portrait of a place from many perspectives and the workshop will provide a platform to share their stories of what is important to them.

In 2018, Eurostat and the CSO reclassified some of the largest Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in Ireland, placing them on government balance sheets. The Housing Alliance is in the process of completing a research project to evaluate the criteria used by Eurostat and related agencies. It will also evaluate the current and potential impacts on AHBs, both positive and negative, of remaining on balance sheet. The final report will contain recommendations for next steps in terms of the classification of AHBs in Ireland.

This will be an immersive workshop which delves into the rich and diverse life stories of social housing residents, offering an authentic “inside story” of their lives within their four walls. Using videos of the lived experiences of two Clann residents (which were produced as part of a previous ‘storytelling project’, Changing Perceptions). Delegates of the ISHF Conference will hear their personal stories, revealing some of the vibrant lives that make up social housing communities.

The Weir is an 81-apartment age friendly scheme that was developed by Clúid on land provided by South Dublin County Council. The scheme completed in June 2024 and is managed by Clúid’s dedicated age friendly housing management team, Clann.

The site visit will allow delegates the opportunity to visit a scheme that was directly designed and built by Clúid. Delegates will be able to meet residents from different backgrounds as well as meeting the Resident Housing Manager at The Weir.

This workshop will include presentations and interviews of Clann residents and staff. The session will provide an overview of how Clúid has tapped into Ireland’s rich heritage of storytelling, how it is used as a powerful and versatile tool to engage residents, preserving histories and diversity & inclusion work.

We will showcase four storytelling projects; Changing Perceptions, Reframing Ageing through Storytelling, Elsie Black Oral History Project and Black Hair Stories – It’s not just hair. These stories have magnified residents’ voices and supported staff in delivering a richer and more person-centred housing service to residents.